NO on 90! What's in it for them?

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Dear friends,

Big corporate dollars continue to flow into Measure 90, the measure that would dramatically change our elections and make it easier for special interests to elect candidates that side with their narrow agenda – at the expense of working Oregonians.

Michael Bloomberg, the 8^th richest man in the United States, just dropped $1.25 million into the election. Bloomberg's contribution is just the latest in a number of large checks sent from out-of-state billionaires to support the effort to replace Oregon's primary elections. In total, these special interests have contributed more than $4 million to-date, making Measure 90 one of the most heavily funded ballot measure campaigns in Oregon's history.

It's got us wondering: What's in it for them?

What brings together this elite but small group of out-of-state billionaires, Associated Oregon Industries, and a number of other big corporations?

It's not hard to connect the dots.

Anti-worker, pro-corporate interests are trying to change how Oregon conducts our elections so they can more easily elect the types of candidates who will side with their corporate agenda. Measure 90 would replace our current May election with a "Top Two" system that essentially guarantees that only the two best-funded candidates would reach the November ballot.

Corporate funders must be spending millions to back Measure 90 because they think they get something out of it. 

Don't let special interests choose candidates for us. Join nurses, firefighters, teachers, small business owners, police, and the Democratic Party of Oregon in saying: No on Measure 90!

 www.NoOnMeasure90.org/join-us

Undernews: About a national popular vote

For some reason, Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney of Salem (D-21st) refuses to let this reach the floor of the Oregon senate where it would likely pass.  

Passage of NPV would mean adding Oregon to the list of states who think the winner of the White House should be the person with the most votes from Americans.

What a radical idea!  That the election winner ought to be, you know, the winner, rather than someone vomited up by the Electoral College, like the worst president in history, George W. Bush.

The electoral college is the primary operational legacy of slavery, the misbegotten stepchild of the So-called Great Compromise that locked slavery into the Constitutional scheme for America and required a bloodbath to undo in the Civil War.

But the National Popular Vote is a peaceful workaround to this shameful legacy and that's what National Popular Vote offers: a peaceful way to undo one of the worst, most undemocratic ideas in history, the idea that we need a special "college" of electors to pick a president.

http://prorevnews.blogspot.com/2014/10/about-national-popular-vote.html

About a national popular vote

Fair Vote - The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the presidency to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and the District of Columbia). Under the U.S. Constitution, the states have exclusive and complete power to allocate their electoral votes, and may change their state laws concerning the awarding of their electoral votes at any time. Under the National Popular Vote bill, all of the state's electoral votes would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The bill would take effect only when enacted, in identical form, by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes-that is, enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538).

The bill has had bipartisan support. For example, the most recent state to enter the compact is New York, in April 2014. In the Republican-controlled New York Senate, the chamber approved of the bill 57-4, and majorities of both parties voted for the bill in both legislative chambers. The bill has been enacted by 11 jurisdictions possessing 165 electoral votes - 61% of the 270 necessary to activate it. The bill has also passed 32 legislative chambers in 22 jurisdictions (including the District of Columbia.) A total of at least  2,110 state legislators have endorsed the bill as of April 2014.

Many governors have come out in favor of National Popular Vote. Read what they've said about the effort here.

Many organizations have endorsed the National Popular Vote plan.  Learn more about it at our NPV Facts & Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page.

For more information on the National Popular Vote plan, including weekly updates and ways to get involved, please visit NationalPopularVote.com.

For a state-by-state history of the NPV legislation, see http://nationalpopularvote.com/map.php.

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."